The present invention relates to an absorbing article for absorbing menses or vaginal discharges, such as a sanitary napkin, a panties liner or an incontinence pad.
In the prior art, the known absorbing article such as the sanitary napkin, the panties liner, the vaginal discharge sheet or the incontinence pad is prepared by interposing an absorbent such as cotton pulp between a liquid-impermeable back sheet such as a polyethylene sheet or a polyethylene laminated nonwoven fabric and a liquid-permeable surface sheet such as nonwoven fabric or a permeable plastic sheet.
The body liquid such as menses is generally absorbed by the abutting portion of the absorbent on a body liquid discharge port. The body liquid may diffuse, if once much discharged, along the surface of the napkin or may flow through the clearance, if formed from the skin, on the body so that it diffuses forward and backward or to the right and left of the napkin. These tendencies are intensified especially while the napkin wearer is sleeping, so that the body liquid diffuses widely to the back of the napkin. In the known night sanitary napkin, therefore, the absorbent is made wider on the back end than at the crotch portion (as referred to Patent Documents 1 and 2, for example).
On the other hand, the means for preventing the transverse leakage is frequently practiced by forming stereo gathers on the two sides of the surface side. These stereo gathers are usually formed linearly along the longitudinal direction of the product. However, there arises a problem that the absorbent portions on the outer sides of the stereo gathers do not function substantially in the back end portion, in case the stereo gathers are applied to the absorbing article, in which the absorbent width at least on the aforementioned back end is larger than that of the crotch.
In order to solve this problem, Patent Document 3 has proposed a paper diaper, as shown in FIG. 7, in which stereo gathers 60 are arranged such that their spacing is narrowed in the crotch portion but is gradually widened at the front end portion and the back end portion.
On the other hand, Patent Document 4 has proposed an absorbing article 70, as shown in FIG. 8, in which an absorbent is interposed between a liquid-permeable surface sheet and a liquid-impermeable back sheet, which is so curvilinearly formed that the absorbent width of at least the back-side rear end may be larger than that of the crotch, and which has stereo gathers 72 on the two sides of the surface. The stereo gathers 72 are provided, in the crotch region containing the body liquid discharging portion, with gather rising points 72b at positions close to the side edges of the absorbent 71, and are shaped to bulge inward, when expanded, substantially along the side edges of an absorbent 71 with reference to imaginary lines joining the longitudinal starting end portions 73 and the longitudinal terminating end portions 74 of the stereo gathers 72. These stereo gathers 72 are so constituted within their formed range as to have the gather rising points 72b, at which the sheet material forming the stereo gathers 72 is folded back outward along the gather longitudinal direction, and free ends 72a which are positioned on the outer sides of the gather rising points 72b.     Patent Document 1: JP-A-2000-189459    Patent Document 2: JP-A-2003-62008    Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent No. 2908877    Patent Document 4: JP-A-2002-165836